Prologue:
"You're what?" Callisto Black gasped, backing away from her daughter as if she were the plague.
Andromeda breathed in deeply, trying to keep her anger in check. 'Patience is a virtue,' she reminded herself, taking a sip of tea as if the topic of conversation was a trivial matter that was always discussed over afternoon tea.
"Mother, I'm pregnant," she said slowly, enunciating her words. She took another sip of tea, just to keep things as normal as possible.
Mrs. Black sat in stunned silence, clutching her chest as if any second her heart would burst out.
Andromeda smiled behind her teacup at the prospect of her mother dying from a major heart attack. And if this little bit of good news didn't do it maybe the next bit would. One could only hope.
For several long seconds the women sat there in complete silence, except for the tinkle of silver against porcelain as Andromeda mixed a lump of sugar into her tea.
"Who is the father?" Mrs. Black asked, her breathing was hard and forced. Her face was grey and stricken.
'Time for the icing on the cake,' Andromeda gleefully thought, as the father's name bunched up on the tip of her tongue. "Ted Tonks."
"Tonks?" Mrs. Black sat there for a second contemplating the name. "I don't believe I've met any Tonks'. Are they foreigners?" She picked up her cup of tea gracefully. It quivered slightly in her slender hands.
"No, they live right here in London," Andromeda stated, preparing to let loose the big one.
"They do? Then I must've met his mother at one point or another. Does she have a membership to the Witches Society?"
The Witches Society was where the well to do women of pureblood families went to socialise, trade anti-ageing spells, and discuss what's fashionable at that second in time.
Andromeda had been there on more than one occasion and found it the shallowest and dullest place on the face of the planet. Even a lecture from Professor Binns was more stimulating.
"No, I don't believe she would live up to the Society's rather high standards." Andromeda smiled as her mother's face fell.
"What do you mean by that?" Mrs. Black asked fearfully, sitting upright in her high back chair.
"Mother, I was knocked up by a mudblood!" Andromeda practically shouted, relishing the moment when her mother's face looked as if it had been hit with a cruciatus curse.
Her teacup fell from her dainty grip and smashed all over the carpet that had once belonged to a wizard Mr. Black had met while visiting the Middle East. It used to be a flying carpet. Now it just sat there, every once in awhile flailing its corners helplessly.
"SLAG!" Callisto Black screeched, anger filling her dead grey eyes. "SLUT! TRAITOR!" She stood up to her formidable height of 5'2", hand raised above her head.
SMACK! It slammed into Andromeda's face with the force of a charging erupment. Her skin began to sting as a red hand shape appeared on her usually white cheek.
"Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. House. You. Ungrateful. Wretch," Mrs. Black hissed, her voice murderous. She pointed a quivering finger at the front door.
'So much for a heart attack.' Andromeda stood up quickly and glared at her mother. "You can't kick me out of this house. I've already moved out. My stuff is at Sirius'. If you want to contact me I'll be there." Spitefully she dropped her teacup onto the ground and marched out of the claustrophobically decorated parlour and into the large, marble tiled foyer.
Her older sister Narcissa was coming down the winding staircase dressed in a low cut shirt, a flowing skirt, and a powder blue robe.
"See you around Cissa," she said coldly, reaching for the door handle. The wall next to her head exploded. Bits of plaster and wood were flung into the young woman's face
Andromeda jumped, turning around. Her mother stood in the parlour doorway breathing heavily. She held her wand in her left hand.
"I don't want to ever see you around here again. As far as I'm concerned you are no longer a Black."
"You say that as if it is a bad thing," Andromeda remarked, ripping the door open. Rain pattered cheerfully on the sidewalk. The door slammed against her back propelling her onto the sidewalk. She threw out her hands in desperation. They scraped against the cement, bits of rock and dirt lodged into the wound.
A tear rolled down Andromeda's cheek. She was happy to be rid of her family. Let there be no doubt in that. But they were all she had ever known. Now the world seemed like a large cruel place.
Picking herself up Andromeda sighed and stared at the front of her home. "Good riddance." She spat on its front stoop.
She turned to the grey, desolate world ahead of her and stepped into the road. It was time to start her own life.
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